ANGELS RUMORS & GOSSIP

The Winter Meetings are generally where the waves are made in MLB’s offseason; get that many baseball executives and front offices in one place and things are bound to happen. This year has been no different, as some serious pieces have changed addresses so far. Chris Sale, Aroldis Chapman, Wade Davis, Adam Eaton, Ian Desmond and a slew of prospects have gone from one team to another...

After the Chicago White Sox traded Adam Eaton to the Washington Nationals for three of their best prospects, many fans certainly wondered if the Angels could do the same with Kole Calhoun.
I know this, because several of them have already reached out...

By Jonathan Northrop, AngelsWin.com Columnist - A Road Forward In other threads at AngelsWin.com many have been bemoaning the fact that Eppler isn't making a big—or even medium—splash during the Winter Meetings. I would offer a perspective that may explain what Eppler is doing, and how it might be in team's best interests. This perspective is based upon the following...

By Robert Cunningham, AngelsWin.com Senior Writer - Author’s Note: If you missed the first three installments you can find Part I here, Part II here, Part III here, Part IV here, and Part V here. For most of 2016, the best C.J. on the team continued to grow and develop on both sides of the ball, providing slightly improved offense and, surprisingly, defense. To illustrate...

The Rule 5 draft equals some minor league musical chairs for the Angels First, to no one’s surprise, there weren’t any Angels players drafted in the major league round of the Rule 5 draft. There were some taken in the minor league phase. The Angels lost Cal Towey and Alex Yarbrough to the Marlins, Harrison Cooney to the Red Sox, and Anthony Bemboom to the Rockies. In turn...

Billy Eppler rushed out of an expansive ballroom at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center on Thursday morning with a smile on his face and plans in his head. The Angels might not have made any moves during the Winter Meetings, but the club's GM, now in his second offseason at the helm, has laid plenty of groundwork for coming transactions.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – Billy Eppler left the winter meetings Thursday morning without a new second baseman, which is no doubt disappointing to many fans but irrelevant to the Angels.
While the winter meetings provide a media-fueled atmosphere of...

The Angels have agreed to trade Rule 5 Draft pick and right-handed pitcher Justin Haley for cash, Pedro Moura of the Los Angeles Times tweets. It’s expected that team will be the Twins, as Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press and others have tweeted.
Haley was the eighth pick in the draft from the Red Sox system, and the Twins had already selected a player, Miguel Diaz, by that...

The Blue Jays have agreed to a deal with southpaw Brett Oberholtzer, tweets FanRag’s Jon Heyman. Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi tweets that it’s a minor league contract.
The 27-year-old Oberholtzer struggled mightily in 2016, though, pitching to a career-worst 5.89 ERA with 6.9 K/9, 3.7 BB/9 and a 42.3 percent ground-ball rate in 70 innings between the Philies and Angels. The former...

We’ve still got plenty of Winter Meetings left, which means we’re still (im)patiently waiting for some Angels news to develop...something, anything to whet our appetites. Billy Eppler, meanwhile, is still out there, continuing his quest to grab a second baseman that is more than just a pipe dream.
Of course, I’m still playing fake GM in my head and on Halos Heaven, trying...

Baseball America refreshed their top 10 list in November You can find the entire listing here, but aside from reading about Jahmai Jones, the rest of the article requires a premium subscription so I won’t include all the details here. There is probably some rule against that or something anyway :)
TOP 10 PROSPECTS
1. Jahmai Jones, of (more here)2. Matt Thaiss, 1b3. Alex Meyer...

Merry Christmas, Angels fans!
Albert Pujols just had what the Orange County Register – in a bold, front-page headline – characterized as “surprising surgery,” 2016 the season that just keeps taking.
While undergoing any operation usually...

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) Los Angeles Angels slugger Albert Pujols had surgery on his right foot Friday, possibly sidelining him past opening day. Angels general manager Billy Eppler said Pujols had the procedure Friday in North Carolina to release his plantar fascia, the ligament connecting the heel to the toes. The three-time NL MVP was bothered by plantar fasciitis repeatedly during...

The always bargain shopping Oakland Athletics may have pulled off one of the best value deals thus far during the Major League Baseball offseason.
According to various reports, the A’s have signed veteran outfielder Matt Joyce to a two-year deal worth $11 million.
Source: #Athletics in agreement with Matt Joyce on two-year, $11M contract, pending physical.
— Ken Rosenthal...

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) The Los Angeles Angels have signed outfielder Ryan LaMarre and designated infielder Gregorio Petit for assignment. The moves were announced Monday night. The 28-year-old LaMarre has 26 games of major league experience with the Cincinnati Reds and Boston Red Sox, who signed him last December and used him in five games. He has appeared in 646 minor league games...

The Angels presently project to have baseball’s worst bullpen. Now, they know it’s a potential weakness, and they’re going to make further moves to try to shore things up, but some time ago the front office did re-sign Andrew Bailey for a year and $1 million. It’s terribly unexciting, and this isn’t even new. Again: old transaction! But I thought about this when I read...

The Angels: what a case study in weird this team is. Here are a few things to consider about them, if this is your first time reading about baseball:
The Angels have the best player in baseball, Mike Trout.
The Angels, as a whole, are not a good team.
The Angels have a pitching staff held together by chewing gum, rubber bands, and Cam Bedrosian.
The Angels have a farm system held...

The Los Angeles Angels didn’t have much luck this past season. They were also pretty bad, regardless. And as we’ve learned almost yearly, having the best baseball player on the planet (and now two-time MVP) can only get you so far. Just three seasons ago, the Angels won 98 games and the AL West. One year later, they were one win away from returning to the postseason.
Then this...

More ammunition for the barroom set to impress or challenge true MLB fans ...
Clues:
1. Who has won the most World Series rings of any player in baseball history? He's got one for each finger and thumb.
2. Who played the most MLB games without ever having the chance to play in postseason game? Is telling you he's a Cub a hint or a given?
3. In 1979 this Cardinal became the...

The Los Angeles Angels had a down year in 2016, but Mike Trout continued to show why many have labeled him the best player in baseball. It would seem crazy for the Angels to consider trading the 25-year-old superstar, but one scout believes the richest team in baseball is going to try to convince L.A.’s brass to do just that.
After the New York Yankees traded Aroldis Chapman and...

Two relevant facts here are indisputable. One, in this most recent season, the Angels were bad. They won 74 games. By BaseRuns, they “should have” won 71 games. That made them about as good as the Twins and the Braves. Horrible season. Two, baseball fans love a blockbuster. It’s not even unique to baseball. Sports fans love a blockbuster. They love seeing them, they love thinking...

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